i “heart” distressed utee…

Uteehearts ever had those moments when life throws you a curve ball?  well join the club!  it's inevitable right?  things have been busy here around the studio as always and we've been kitting up for my next stop at the queen's ink in maryland.  i was planning on teaching the last bird workshop when "bam" something changes and you have lots of figuring out to do and no time to do it.  have i told you i work well under pressure though?  i believe that everything happens for a reason and it's simply matter of moving your point of view around until you see (sounds like a good stamp to have right?).  well, i needed to come up with another class idea and fast!  i have to say, that this workshop that i have planned for the queen's ink has to be one of the best yet.  not tooting my own horn or anything like that, but i love it when everything comes together and creates artistic harmony – you know when you finish a project and sit back to look at it as you hear angels singing in the background?  okay, so maybe not THAT amazing, but still i think this workshop has more techniques and artistic goodness than the other class ever had to offer anyways.  so all is good and i'm so excited to teach it this weekend…

so we have vintage trinkets kitted up in bags, antique ephemera stuffed into bags, and lots of these distressed utee hearts i have pictured above (60 to be exact) – what's distressed utee?  well i love to start with clear utee and then pour in distress embossing powders to colorize it – the result is this granite-like deep colorization with little specks of distress powders that give the finished piece the look of tumbled stone.  so cool! and oh yes and there's mini canvas, beeswax, and multi-medium collage techniques in store as well as layered fragments, grungeboard, and idea-ology galore!  sounds pretty fun huh?  so that's what's been going on around here.  finishing up the kits today that i will pack in my suitcase to bring tomorrow – nothing like down to the wire huh?  oh well, all's fun in the world of art.  enjoy today…t!m

Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 101